Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

Definition

SNCC was one of the major American Civil Rights Movement organizations in the 1960s. It emerged from student-led sit-ins and played significant roles in Freedom Rides, voter registration drives and organizing grassroots activism.

Related terms

Freedom Rides: Civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into segregated southern United States to challenge non-enforcement of Supreme Court decisions which ruled segregated public buses unconstitutional.

Voter Registration Drives: Efforts by various organizations to help potential voters register in order to increase voter turnout.

Grassroots Activism: The process of building community support and mobilizing that community to take action on a specific issue or range of issues. In the case of SNCC, this was largely around civil rights and racial equality.